Minister sentenced in N.H. for sex abuse

NASHUA, N.H. – A Baptist minister who previously served in Maine has been sentenced to 60 to 120 years in prison for sexually abusing two younger female relatives for several years, prosecutors said Thursday.

Stephen Mattson, 47, pleaded guilty Wednesday to 46 felony sexual assault charges in Hillsborough and Rockingham counties, Deputy Rockingham County Attorney Thomas Reid said Thursday.

Mattson never headed a church but ran special programs, sometimes youth programs, Reid said. He had served at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Litchfield and Victory Baptist in Londonderry, and at Baptist churches in Maine, Texas and Illinois.

Mattson kept moving his family every time suspicions of his sexual abuse surfaced, according to Reid, who added that church officials hushed it up at least three times.

“Over the years … the defendant was caught and confronted…. He would engage in a routine of crying, apologizing, engaging in prayer … and of course promising never to do it again. He’d confess and seek forgiveness from God, but then he continued to harm children,” Reid said.

Mattson told investigators he confessed to three pastors, but none reported him to police or took action against him.

“[Abuse] was basically covered up within the church and within the family,” Reid said. “[Church officials] moved him along.”

Mattson admitted he assaulted his two relatives from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, while living in Derry, Londonderry, Litchfield and Manchester, Reid said.

In addition to the sexual abuse, he said, “he beat them, degraded them, manipulated them,” Reid said.

The victims, now adults, testified during the three-hour sentencing hearing, Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Roger Chadwick said.

“Everybody in the courtroom was crying when they were done,” he said.

Prosecutors also learned of at least three other girls, not related to Mattson, who were victimized, Reid said.

“We also brought to the court’s attention that over the years there were other young victims in other jurisdictions, including Maine, Illinois and Texas,” Reid said.

Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Patricia Coffey sentenced Mattson to the 60- to 120-year prison term prosecutors had sought.

Coffey told Mattson she couldn’t have imagined a worse case, according to Reid. Reid and Chadwick quoted Coffey as telling Mattson: “I don’t stand in judgment of your soul, I only stand in judgment of your crimes.”

Mattson’s lawyer, public defender Tim Landry, urged a 20- to 40-year sentence. Landry could not be reached Thursday.

Mattson pleaded guilty to virtually all charges without negotiating a plea bargain and took responsibility for his crimes, Chadwick and Reid said.

Mattson could have faced a life sentence under New Hampshire’s three-strikes rape law, Chadwick said, but prosecutors chose to recommend 10 to 20 years for each victim in each jurisdiction.

They calculated that the lesser, consecutive sentences would be more likely to hold up on appeal, Chadwick said.

“The only assurance we have that he won’t do it again is if we ensure that he’s not given the opportunity to do it again,” Reid said.